This November 30, Eric Zemmour, in his video posted on Youtube, announced his presidential candidacy.
Ten minutes during which the candidate multiplied the figures of speech and rhetorical pirouettes.
Anaphors, alliterations, insistence, chiasmas ...
Le Figaro
analyzed Eric Zemmour's declaration of candidacy.
Anaphors, accumulations: the art of repetition
You just have to listen to it. Éric Zemmour's speech is punctuated by anaphors, a figure of speech consisting in repeating the same word or group of words at the beginning of a sentence. For example: “
Do you remember the country you knew in your childhood? Do you remember the country your parents described to you? Do you remember the country you find in the movies?
This verbal group is reminiscent of the famous "
Je me souviens
" by Perec, while Eric Zemmour is part of a literary heritage, "
the land of Victor Hugo and Chateaubriand
".
Another well-known figure in rhetoric follows: accumulation. Joan of Arc, Pasteur, de Gaulle, Molière or even Notre Dame de Paris: all these figures are associated with the word "
country
", repeated 24 times in two minutes. In doing so, Eric Zemmour uses, what we call in linguistic analysis, a process of insistence.
A few minutes later in his speech, Eric returns to another figure: repetition.
Indeed, his speech can be read in the form of three parts, the first presenting an observation, the second, linked by the conjunctive phrase “
that's why
”, his declaration of candidacy and then a possible tomorrow.
The speech ends with a new anaphora, composed by "
so that
", followed by "
our children and grandchildren do not know barbarism
", "
the French remain French
", "
the French feel at home
". ..
Read also From the dazzling breakthrough to doubt, behind the scenes of Eric Zemmour's pre-campaign
Chiasmas, anacoluth: a mirror discourse
Throughout his speech, the personal pronoun "
you
" is very present.
And this, from the start of his intervention.
“
The same feeling embraces you, oppresses you, haunts you.
[...] You walk [..] you look at your screens [...] you take subways [...] you wait for your daughter or your son at the end of school ...
"The"
you
»Is thus at the heart of the discourse, Eric Zemmour places his listeners as his first concern.
It is therefore based on the conative function, a stylistic method pushing the listener to change his attitude, his opinion, his behavior on his own, following the words heard.
Then comes, for the second and third parts, the "
we
" and the "
I
», Marker of the candidate's intervention.
In order to defend his vision of France, Éric Zemmour does not hesitate to multiply chiasmas, anastrophes and anacoluths. Figures of speech with slightly barbaric names, all aim to create a parallel between two terms. First example of chiasm: "
you have not left your country, but it is as if your country had left you
". Mirrored structure that denies the action of "
you
" to "
leave your country
", and emphasizes its passive form.
"
You were despised [...] but you understood that it was they who were a lure, it was they who were harming you
". The "
you
" is thus spun in antithesis, opposed to "
them
", "
authorities
", "
journalists
", "
well-meaning
" ... Thus continues a long tirade, called accumulation. The latter consisting in succeeding several close terms, often adjectives, in order to support the point. Another example, “
the French people have been intimidated, paralyzed, indoctrinated, made to feel guilty
”.
Finally, note the assonances in "
S
" and "
P
" in the candidate.
To the ear, this predominance of labial and dental consonants reinforces his powerful images, already embodied by sometimes violent videos.
